Chats and Stilts

As a mark of how poor the mothing has been, the only interesting stuff I've enjoyed have been avian. A horse paddock not too far from home was home to a passage Whinchat for a few days, and on the last day of April when I nipped out to see it there had been a good passage of Wheatears too with at least seven seen across four sites.

And then in the middle of the week two Black-winged Stilts turned up at Cossington Meadows, so I nipped over in the early evening after work for good views albeit not quite a close as I'd have hoped. Just as well I had a look as they buggered off overnight.

I grabbed a snippet of video whilst there ....

I was sure they were a pair, with one distinctly blacker and the other with brownish tones. Later in the evening there were photos shared of them copulating so no doubt.

Today I headed to Croft Hill for a walk with Nichola, getting great views of a Wood Warbler (though no attempt to point a camera at it). It was only doing the 'spinning plate' part of the song though for the whole time.

Whilst out in Croft, I stopped to have a good look over a clump of Green Alkanet and found a handful of Scarlet Tiger caterpillars.

Surely the garden trap can't continue to be generally quiet and low on numbers and diversity for much longer!